:: January/February 2004 Volume 3/Number 1

Case Histories

By Bea Ammidown, RYT

Bea Ammidown practices yoga and teaches yoga to people with disabilities or serious illnesses. As she teaches, she learns from them. Bea also keeps a journal.

Kay, age 54
She sits in a hospital bed in a chintz flowered room in Beverly Hills. My student is a former Broadway dancer and R.N. She laughs at the name of the pose I have asked her to take: it is “dead bug”. Kay has muscular Dystrophy (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrigs disease). She laughs as she asks if we can re-name the pose; she would like to call it “ The Dancing Bug”.

Later in a recliner chair, she closes her eyes and sleeps. Some days after yoga she listens to basketball on TV with her husband close to her. To begin the three times a week practice, I offer her passive leg and arm stretches where the limbs are lifted and extended gently to produce a soothing welcomed traction, followed by ankle and foot rotations. Then we do a lying down twist pose, but pushing and pulling so that her increasingly stiffening body is supported. Pillows and bolsters of different sizes are put into needed places for balance and comfort. We do bent knee rotations for her hips and wide arm circles for the shoulders, bringing her body alive.

In order to avoid serious cramping that occurs with ALS, we do not hold poses for a long time and instead shift and perform continuous slow movements. A body-mind dialogue is sometimes part of our sessions. At the end of our class Kay often creates an affirmation. When we first began practicing her afirmation was “I am unreasonable but-reasonable”. Now her affirmation is often, “my humanity is my strength.” Kay requested receiving supported yoga sessions the last days of her life.

Eddie, age 7
Eddie rushes to the door, takes my hand and pulls me to the wall so we both can work out against the wall. I have worked with him since he was a few months old. Our times together have become a family reunion, where his parents, little sister and big brother often join in the practice. Cats, dogs, lions, cobra asanas are offered. Then we crawl under each other in a bridge pose. People with Down syndrome are extremely loose jointed and require muscle building so weight bearing poses such as peaceful warrior done at the stair railing and the adapted hand stands are regulars among the poses we practice together.

Bob, age 56 and Barbara, age 64
Bob has Cerebral Palsy, he is partially ambulatory, but rolls to our yoga class in his wheel chair. He goes to the mat on the floor immediately. Bob is now an accomplished yoga practitioner remembering many poses. I only need to say the names and he will begin the practice as I continue to work with his wife who also has Cerebral Palsy. Barbara remains in the reclining wheel chair where I will focus on guiding her breathing and stretching her limbs. I call out to Bob: “Sphinx, cobra, down dog” and then we do some cats. He will then lie on his back over a bolster supporting his hips and rest like this in a mild inverted bridge pose for 5 minutes at a time. He then stretches his legs out, arms reaching back elongating his whole spinal column for a few breaths. A happy baby pose with knees bent and hugged into the chest follows. I put Barbara into the same pose and they laugh. The laughter quiets down and now a deep relaxation /savasana period completes the class. They roll off to their van and drive home.

Antonia, age21
Antonia, a cheerful young lady with Cerebral palsy, has never walked a day in her life. She often begins her practice, seated and secure in her wheel chair, her legs extended onto another chair to stretch the back of them. Her well-developed upper body is an asset and she utilizes it confidently in certain poses such as the cobra. Upward facing dog and downward facing dog gives her a sweet sense of pride and accomplishment. She then rolls onto her back with feet on my thighs to begin moving bridges. A shoulder stand, her favorite, with the side of my leg along her raised back supports this inverted pose. A supported fish ( lying down twist), Antonia accomplishes alone, and 45 minutes later I end the class with deep relaxation, music and occasionally a story I read. Some sessions include a dialogue where Antonia tells a story she will later write up at home. In the story she goes to an imaginary place; the story, she says, is inspired by her yoga practice.

Bea Ammidown, RYT teaches privately and at The YogAbility Institute, a non-profit organization. She can be reached at: or 310-358-3338.